Discussion

Tomato Dessert?

I've got a few too many tomatoes on my hands at the moment. They're very complex and sweet, and super ripe -- a few of them are going to start getting mushy if I wait any longer to use them. I'm attending a dinner tonight, and I need a dessert. Does anyone have a good dessert recipe that incorporates tomatoes? Maybe a tomato dessert pie??

Here's a recipe for tomato basil sorbet. I'm just not sure I'd show up with something so unusual for a dinner party--unless I knew they were adventurous foodies who would go for a savory-ish desserthttp://www.ebfarm.com/Recipes/StyledR...

I'm in the process of developing an Heirloom Tomato Shortcake to demo at the Northern New Jersey Slow Food's Tomato Days this Sunday. Combining tomatoes with orange zest, turbinado sugar, vanilla and freshly ground cardamom for a refreshingly sweet filling for the traditional biscuit shortcake.

I have, literally, 99 recipes for tomato pie. Every one of them that uses ripe tomatoes is a savory, not sweet, concoction. Every one of them that is sweet uses green (unripe) tomatoes. All of the sweet pies are made very much like an apple pie, just using green tomatoes instead. There is a sweet dish (ripe tomatoes and brown sugar) called scalloped tomatoes. Oldest recipe that I find of it was served by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. You skin the ripe tomatoes and cut into slices. You also need bread crumbs (about 1 cup per quart of tomatoes), brown sugar (about 3/4 cup for each quart of tomatoes). Salt and pepper to taste. Melt some butter (1/2 stick per quart of tomatoes) in a casserole or cast-iron skillet, add the tomatoes, brown sugar, breadcrumbs and seasoning, and heat it on stove top (it should be hot before it goes into the oven), then bake for about an hour in a 350-degree oven, until the tomatoes are glazed and the liquid is mostly absorbed. If it's getting too dry, add some more butter. I'll have to say that my family found the dish too sweet. We thought reducing the sugar a bit and adding something tart - say juice from a lemon - would improve it. It is easy to make.